Posted on 04/23/2007 4:24:36 PM PDT by LibWhacker
As the tirade of HD back scratching continues unabated, with the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats vying for market and consumer dominance, supporters in both camps claim superiority at every turn despite the pendulum motion attributed to sales of software and hardware across separate regions of the world.
With Sony’s recently released PlayStation 3 making a significant impact on the attraction of the Japanese giant’s Blu-ray high-definition format thanks to the videogames console’s sub-$500 USD price tag (which will soon shift to $599 USD following the production abandonment of the cheaper $499 20GB HDD model) sales of Blu-ray discs and hardware have been reported as continually outperforming that of its HD-DVD rival.
Most recently, according to a related Reuters report, Home Media Magazine has released figures indicating that Q1 2007 sales attributed to HD discs are split massively in Blu-ray’s favour, with the Sony-backed format notching up 832,530 sales against HD-DVD’s 359,300, which is a percentile of around 70 to 30 after the year’s first three months.
Following a market lead wrestled free in February, Blu-ray’s performance is now said to have evolved to the point where nearly three of every four HD discs sold belong to Sony’s format. Moreover, Home Media Magazine’s research, which is built on estimations from movie studios and Nielsen VideoScan point-of-sale records, further supports the notion that consumer choice resides firmly in Blu-ray’s corner.
More pointedly, when Martin Scorsese’s Oscar favourite “The Departed” was released on February 13 on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, sales figures gathered up until March 31 showed that Blu-ray owners snapped up 53,640 units of the movie, while HD-DVD owners only contributed to sales of 31,590. And, it’s also worth noting that eight of the top-ten best-selling HD titles during the first quarter of 2007 were also assigned to the Blu-ray format, with hit James Bond vehicle Casino Royale sitting on top of the Q1 pile with approximately 59,680 unit sales.
Despite Blu-ray’s climb in popularity – no doubt boosted by the appearance of the PlayStation 3’s more accessible price point when compared to other existing Blu-ray players, industry watchers maintain that the format’s rise is to be expected as it is supported by more major movie studios than Toshiba’s cheaper to produce HD-DVD.
Yet, not everyone believes that Blu-ray will emerge victorious in the HD war, with HD-DVD backers and market commentators claiming that consumers will naturally move toward the cheaper of the two formats (with format backers closely pursuing the profit) as the differential in quality is negligible – at best – and that Sony’s track record regarding new media formats is not exactly glowing.
For example, tech writer Mark Raby at TGDaily suggests that “nothing could be further from the truth” considering the idea of Blu-ray’s PlayStation 3-bolstered rise leading to HD-DVD’s imminent demise.
“There are, without a doubt, a number of people who bought a PS3 and are testing out the Blu-ray movie player as a novelty,” opines Raby. “The PS3 counts for more than 75% of all BD players that have been sold, and when this novelty wears off for the non-enthusiasts, it may not be on such an elevated playing ground anymore.”
Raby also takes the opportunity to highlight the failures endured by Sony in recent years regarding ambitious formats such as Betamax, Super Audio CD, Minidisc, UMD, and others: “You can count the number [of formats] that turned out to be big successes by, well, doing absolutely nothing. The answer is zero.”
And, to enforce the possibility that the HD format heading to victory is more likely to be the one deemed more consumer friendly at retail, Engadget has revealed that American retail giant Wal-Mart is about to introduce a sub $300 USD high-definition player to retail – though its Japanese source isn’t able to confirm it as Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or a format-straddling hybrid player.
According to Engadget and Akihabara News, Wal-Mart has snapped up 2 million of the new Fuh Yuan and TDK engineered players from China-based Great Wall Corp., with its $299 USD price tag bringing it in a clear $100 USD cheaper than Toshiba’s current lowest offering, the A2 HD-DVD player, and a full $300 USD cheaper than Sony’s lowest priced player, the BDP-S300.
In five years HD-DVD will be gone.
ping
Until I can record HD disks for 50 cents each like today’s DVD+R... I am not even interested.
Wife and I bought our hi-def tv last summer and still haven’t bought a dvd player for it. We’re frozen. Don’t know which way to go.
Oh, yeah? FUH YUAN, TOO!
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You’re getting ripped off. Goto FRY’s and get yourself a 100 pack for about $.25 or less per disc.
Blu-Ray is the future.
Let me think for a moment...
......
Blu-Ray ! Get a blu-ray and forget about it.
LOL. Hey, don’t make fun. We might buy a Fuh Yuan, given the price. Gotta see it though first. If it doesn’t measure up to Blu-Ray 1080p, I think it’s a no-go.
Have you seen any movies on HiDef with HD-DVD and BluRay ?
Somebody (somehow) convinced me that Fuji makes the most reliable/best quality discs, currently. They might cost a little more.
Beautiful picture, that’s for sure!
I got a DVD player that “upgrades” DVDs to near HD quality. It was only a bit over a hundred dollars. Maybe you should go that way until you can decide. :)
Yes, on Blu-Ray. Looked great. I doubt at my screen size (42”)you can tell the difference between the two, but since Blu-Ray has the higher capacity it’s the safer bet. Not to mention that its backed by industry behemoths like Matsushita(Panasonic) and Sony.
I jumped on the Betamax bandwagon back in the day.... I will sit this one out for awhile.
We did the same thing. Still have the old DVD player hooked up for CDs (it’s better for those).
Only $100 and you can see the difference.
Yes, I’ve heard of those. That’s a definite possibility. Right now we’re still using our old DVD player, which gives us 480i, way better than what our old tv could handle.
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